Trump gives permit to ranchers whose case led to occupation

Dwight Hammond, left, is greeted by his wife after getting out of prison

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management in the final days of the Trump administration issued a grazing permit to Oregon ranchers whose imprisonment sparked the 2016 armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge by right-wing extremists. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s restored Dwight and Steven Hammond’s grazing permit earlier this week, which lasts for 10 years, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. The father and son had their permit revoked after a jury convicted them in 2012 of arson on public lands a decade earlier. The men went to prison, served time and were released, but the U.S. Department of Justice later ordered them back to prison to finish the mandatory minimum five-year sentence. That kicked off the 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which is 300 miles (483 kilometers) southeast of Portland. The Oregon State Police fatally shot one occupier, saying he reached for a pistol at a roadblock. The leaders of the takeover, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and five others were later acquitted of conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the refuge. In 2018, Then-President Donald Trump pardoned the Hammonds, allowing them to be freed from federal prison. In a proposal to grant the Hammonds grazing rights on Dec. 31, the land agency said Hammond Ranches should be allowed to graze their cattle on about 26,000 acres (10,522 hectares) in the high desert of eastern Oregon. The federal agency cited the Hammonds’ “extensive historic use of these allotments, past proper use of rangeland resources, a high level of general need, and advantages conferred by topography.” In 2014, when Barack Obama was president, the agency denied Hammond Ranches a renewal of its grazing permit, saying the business “does not have a satisfactory record of performance” and cited numerous incidents of arson...MORE

Trump administration pushes for grazing permits for men who inspired Bundy standoff

The Trump administration is once again pushing ahead with grazing permits for two men pardoned by President Trump whose arson conviction in part spurred the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. A new year’s eve proposal from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would allow Hammond Ranches to graze on lands in southeast Oregon. The ranch is operated by father-son duo Dwight and Steven Hammond who were convicted of setting fire to public lands in 2012. The BLM subsequently revoked their grazing privileges in 2014 — a move that caught the eye of Ammon Bundy, escalating to a 2016 takeover of the refuge’s headquarters. The notice from the BLM would give the Hammonds a permit “due to their extensive historic use of these allotments,” and gives the public 15 days to protest the decision...MORE

Ammon Bundy Comes Out in Support of BLM, Calls to Defund the Police

Ammon Bundy, an anti-government activist who lead the 41-day armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge back in 2016, expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and for defunding the police in a recent Facebook video.  He said in the video that he had considered attending, near his home in Boise, Idaho, “a rally with the Black Lives Matter in support of defunding the police because yes the police need to be defunded.” He decided not to attend the rally, citing concerns about potential violence from fellow “Patriots” who have criticized his stance on the issue. Anyone who doesn’t understand his support for the movement “must have a problem,” he said. “You must have a problem in your mind if you think that somehow the Black Lives Matter is more dangerous than the police,” he said. “You must have a problem in your mind if you think that Antifa is the one going to take your freedom.”...Bundy went on to blame Conservative talk show hosts for adding a negative connotation to certain key phrases like “defund the police,” which he called “the right thing to do” as police have become “a huge authoritarian bureaucracy” that will “take way our liberty.” 8 He criticized his followers for supporting law enforcement and the military “even when they’re doing terrible things across the world.” “I’m not saying that everything they’re doing and every person in it — don’t get me wrong – are doing that, but there needs to be a defunding of government in general, and especially the police forces because they’re the ones who are actually going to seek and destroy us.”...MORE

Ranchers at center of standoff drop appeal over lost grazing allotments

Hammond Ranches has dropped a legal challenge against the federal government, at least for now, to compete for cattle grazing allotments in eastern Oregon it lost last year. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management can now choose whether the Hammond family or one of three neighboring ranches can use the 26,000-acre BLM allotments, the Capital Press reported. Hammond Ranches hopes that U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the BLM will issue a permit to graze the four allotments as soon as possible, though it’s possible they may not be available for livestock this year, said Alan Schroeder, the company’s attorney. The agency will conduct an analysis of qualified candidates, but doesn’t have a specific timeframe for awarding the grazing permit, said Tara Thissell, BLM Burns District spokeswoman. In its application, Hammond Ranches warned that it would demand “immediate compensation” for its range improvements, water rights and intermingled private lands if BLM awards access to the allotments to another ranch...MORE

Judge revokes federal grazing permit for Hammond Ranches Inc.

Hammond Family

A federal judge on Friday revoked the grazing permit for Hammond Ranches Inc., finding that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s order renewing it early this year was an “abuse of discretion.'' Dwight Hammond Jr. and his youngest son Steven Hammond can reapply for a new permit and go through the proper process to obtain one, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon said. Neither Zinke or the U.S. Bureau of Land Management made a finding that the Hammonds were in “substantial compliance,’’ with federal grazing regulations or had a “satisfactory history of performance,’’ as required, the judge found. “Secretary Zinke simply avoided the issue altogether. Under federal law and agency regulations, he may not do this,’’ Simon wrote in a 41-page ruling issued after he heard oral arguments on Thursday. “The Secretary’s failure to comply with the governing statutes and regulations, acknowledge his departure from agency policy and practices, and provide a reasoned explanation for that departure are all serious errors,’’ the judge found...MORE

And from the Western Watershed Project's press release:

A federal judge today overturned the Trump administration’s renewal of the Hammond Ranches’ livestock-grazing permit. The ruling throws out the ranchers’ permit on four allotments in eastern Oregon until further notice. This follows the temporary restraining order and partial injunction in the case that we won last summer.  Because of Hammond Ranches’ pattern of violating federal rules and the terms of its permit that disqualified it from renewal, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon found that then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision to renew the permit “was arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, not rationally connected to the facts before the agency, inconsistent with the governing statutes and regulations, and an unexplained change in agency practice and procedure.”

Western Watersheds Project and our members believe that when ranchers break the law and abuse public lands, they should lose their grazing permit every time. Giving grazing leases to ranchers who violate the terms and conditions of their permits encourages the livestock industry to continue abusing public lands and degrading habitat for native fish and wildlife, and fans the flames of extremism, the likes of which resulted in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge debacle.

The BLM revoked the Hammonds Ranches’ grazing permits in 2014 after Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson on federal lands in 2012. The permittees appealed the decision and the Oregon BLM stood firm. Then on January 2, 2019, Zinke abruptly overruled the local BLM and renewed the permit. By the time the BLM employees came back to work after the government shutdown, they had just a few days to follow their boss' orders and renew the same permits they had been fighting against since 2014.

So we're savoring this victory that restores the rule of law to public lands management and provides the proper process for the agency to consider livestock grazing's impacts on the sensitive resources of Steens Mountain, including sage-grouse and redband trout. These are places and species worth fighting for!

Republican state Rep. is accused of domestic terrorism for planning the 41-day Bundy showdown in Oregon

An independent investigation commissioned by the Washington State House of Representatives has alleged that a Republican rep. for the state engaged in acts of domestic terrorism against the US for his part working with the Bundy family militia. The Rampart Group LLC private investigation firm released a 108-pg report detailing how Representative Matt Shea 'planned, engaged in and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States Government' as a leader of the Patriot Movement. Shea was found to have had a hand in three events: a 2014 standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada, that involved 1500 armed militia members; a 2015 armed conflict in Priest River, Idaho, against the Veteran Administration; and the 2016 armed takeover at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon, that led to the death of one person. 'In one conflict Representative Shea led cover strategic pre-planning in advance of the conflict,' the report states of Shea's participation in the Oregon incident, which lasted for 41 days 'resulting in devastating, financial, physical and emotional harm to a community and its residents; and the loss of one life.' The report states that Shea communicated with Ammon Bundy and other militia members 'in the planning' of the takeover from November 2015 through January 2, 2016. Shea - who was first elected in 2008 - was said to have released a press release calling for militia to help support the action in Oregon. He was also said to have created a detailed operation plan on January 3 of that year - called 'Operation Cold Reality' - that gave clear explanations as to what leadership was to do during the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. On January 4, 2016, Shea used an encrypted email and the code name 'Verumbellator' to contact state reps. from Washington, Idaho and Nevada - along with Coalition of Western States militia leaders - to give them instructions for the takeover. Not identifying himself as a member of COWS, Shea traveled to Burns, Oregon, and met with law enforcement that was dealing with Ammon Bundy and the armed occupiers,' the report states. He was said to have 'gathered intelligence to counter law enforcement operations.'...MORE

Environmentalists seek reversal of Hammonds' grazing permits

After winning a court order limiting grazing, environmentalists are now seeking to overturn the federal government’s grazing authorization for two Oregon ranchers convicted but later pardoned for arson. Dwight and Steven Hammond, a father and son who own a ranch near Diamond, Ore., recovered their grazing permits in early 2019 after receiving a full pardon last year from President Donald Trump for setting fire to public rangelands. Both were released from prison in July 2018 before completing their full 5-year mandatory minimum sentences but they were still prohibited from running cattle on four U.S. Bureau of Land Management allotments near their ranch. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who oversaw the BLM, decided to reinstate their grazing permits in January because the pardons “constitute unique and important changed circumstances” that warranted a reversal of the agency’s 2014 denial of their permit renewal request. Several environmental groups — Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity and Wildearth Guardian — filed a lawsuit earlier this year arguing that Zinke’s decision violated federal environmental laws. In July, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon issued an injunction that reduced how much grass the Hammonds’ cattle can consume and restricting which areas they could graze. The environmental plaintiffs have now filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the judge to vacate the Hammonds’ grazing permits because their presidential pardons “did not alter the conduct, acts and behavior” that led up to the denial of their grazing permits. “BLM’s permit nonrenewal decision did not rely upon the Hammonds’ arson convictions alone; it also relied upon conduct underlying the other counts for which the Hammonds did not meet the criminal standard of guilt but could be held civilly liable,” according to the environmentalists. The plaintiffs argue that BLM’s reinstatement of the grazing permits violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, or FLPMA, which requires “satisfactory record of performance and substantial compliance with federal regulations” that the Hammonds lack. The agency also violated the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, by granting a “categorical exclusion” — known as a CX — that exempted the permit renewals from an environmental assessment or a more thorough environmental impact statement, according to the plaintiffs. “The agency’s unsupported conclusion that there are no potentially significant impacts to ecologically significant areas cannot justify use of the CX,” the motion said...MORE

Ryan Payne, Victoria Sharp’s lawsuit over police stop, shooting death of LaVoy Finicum dismissed

A federal lawsuit that alleged FBI agents and state police used excessive force against Robert “LaVoy” Finicum and the occupants of his truck as it fled a police stop in January 2016 has been dismissed. Shawna Cox, one of the occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, initially filed the civil suit herself, but later dropped out of the case. That left refuge occupier Ryan Payne and Victoria Sharp, who were in Finicum’s truck when police attempted to stop it on Jan. 26, 2016, remaining as the plaintiffs in the suit when it was dismissed Friday. They claimed that FBI agents, Oregon State Police and other officials violated their civil rights by using excessive force and “ambushing” them on the day Finicum was shot and killed. The only remaining defendant in the case as of Friday was then-FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing. Other defendants, including FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita, state police and Gov. Kate Brown, had previously been dismissed as defendants. U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman dismissed the suit Friday, saying “It’s time to put a fork in this case.” The complaint’s allegations by Payne and Sharp were barred by the statute of limitations, Mosman said. A separate wrongful death lawsuit brought by Finicum’s widow, Jeanette Finicum, remains pending in U.S. District Court in Oregon...MORE

How the strange tale of the "Oregon standoff" explains what happened in America in 2016

Andrew O'Hehir

Anthony McCann's "Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff" is one of those extraordinary books that seems to be about one thing, and turns out to be about almost everything. I raved to people a lot while I was reading it, drawing unwise comparisons to "Moby-Dick" and "Beyond Good and Evil." I'm still somewhat OK with those analogies. But rather than going deep on the lit-crit, I would more soberly suggest that "Shadowlands" belongs on the shelf beside Peter Matthiessen's "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" or Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire," as a work of political nonfiction that isn't really "political," at least not in the narrow, normative use of that word. McCann is a poet and writing teacher who lives in the Mojave Desert of Southern California, and was drawn into the now-half-forgotten story of the 2016 "Oregon standoff" by his interest in the geography of the West, Native American messianic spirituality and the way those things intersect with the uniquely American theology of the Latter-day Saints. (Who have officially requested that we no longer call them the Mormons: Everybody gets a safe space.) I want to let my fascinating conversation with McCann tell most of the story, but let's just say that whatever you think you know about the Oregon standoff — when a handful of libertarian loons, associated with the notorious Bundy family of Nevada and drawn together by the internet, took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the remote desert of southeastern Oregon — is probably wrong. The Malheur occupiers relied on a thoroughly nutty interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, and most of them came from the fringes of the far right. But they weren't white supremacists, mostly weren't gun-totin' militia types (except for a few hangers-on), and never resorted to violence or even seriously threatened to do so. ou don't have to agree with anything about the occupiers' understanding of America or God or freedom — and McCann certainly doesn't — to agree that they were responding to something real: a notionally democratic state that has lost much of its popular legitimacy, and a civil society that often feels unmoored or uprooted. Something else, of course, also happened in 2016, and McCann's book becomes an inadvertent chronicle of the weird stew of discontent, on social media and IRL, that led to the election of our current president...MORE

A Creepy Look Inside Ammon Bundy’s Oregon Occupation

As December wore on, more denizens of Ammon’s and Ryan’s patriot’s FaceWorld were trickling into the county. Some of these folks were of considerably different temperament than mild-mannered Ammon. Jon Ritzheimer was one of the more widely known and more troubling of these newcomers. Before coming to Burns, the young Iraq War veteran had ended up on the national news for leading an armed protest outside a Muslim community center in his home state of Arizona. At the rally he’d sported a fuck islam shirt, the principal product of his online business, Rogue Infidel. In the coming months he’d recant on the shirts and claim, in emotional videos posted to the internet, to regret the whole thing. It wasn’t that he’d mellowed, exactly; around the same time he’d also been making threats to personally arrest a Michigan senator who’d supported the Iran nuclear deal, an act he promised to follow up with more arrests, including a citizen’s arrest of the president if necessary...MORE

Creepy is right. Not sure it is worth your time. It is an excerpt from McCann's book.

Federal judge limits cattle grazing for Harney County’s Hammond Ranches

A federal judge will allow Hammond Ranches Inc. to graze its cattle on parts of a federal allotment called Hardie Summer this season but must limit its use as three environmental advocacy groups challenge the Harney County ranchers’ federal grazing permit in court. U.S. District Judge ­Michael H. Simon issued a 58-page written ruling Tuesday, granting a partial preliminary injunction after two days of oral arguments. The judge approved an alternative grazing plan that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had proposed at last month’s hearing. The three environmental groups suing the federal land agency rejected the alternative at the start of the hearing and urged a halt to any cattle grazing by the Harney County ranchers on federal land. The Hardie Summer allotment is about 9,800 acres, of which approximately 39 percent is owned by the Hammonds, and 61 percent, or 6,000 acres, is publicly owned. The allotment is subdivided into five pastures on which the cattle rotate during grazing. The restrictions will reduce harm to sage grouse and will lessen the harms to redband trout, Simon wrote in his ruling. The judge issued the restrictions amid a finding that the environmental groups had shown a likelihood of succeeding in proving that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s order for the government to reissue a 10-year grazing permit to the Hammonds this year “was arbitrary and capricious” and unlawful...MORE

BLM reissues permits to Dwight and Steven Hammond

Dwight and Steven Hammond’s journey from ranchers to convicted domestic terrorists back to ranchers concluded this week when the federal government reissued permits allowing the father and son to graze cattle again on public land. A Bureau of Land Management spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the agency had reinstated grazing permits for Hammond Ranches in Harney County, Oregon, who received full pardons from President Trump in July. The Hammonds were sentenced to five-year mandatory minimum sentences in 2015 under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act for two prescribed burns that spread to public land, a sentence that stoked outrage in the rural West. Public Lands Council president Bob Skinner and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Kevin Kester called the reinstated permits “the final step in righting the egregious injustices the Hammonds faced.” “This is the culmination of years of effort on behalf of this industry to restore a family’s livelihood,” said their statement. “We speak on behalf of the livestock producers nationwide in saying thank you to Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and his team who worked to correct the hardships this family faced.” Ethan Lane, senior executive director of PLC and NCBA Federal Lands, said the Hammonds learned Monday through their attorney that their grazing permits had been restored...MORE

Jury acquits FBI agent accused of lying in Finicum shooting case

A federal jury Friday returned not guilty verdicts in the trial of FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita, accused of lying to conceal that he fired two shots at the truck of refuge occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum" in January 2016. The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for about six hours over two days after a three-week trial in Portland before U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones. They acquitted Astarita on two counts of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of justice. Astarita, 41, a member of the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team, looked straight ahead but squeezed the hands of defense lawyers Robert Cary and Meghan Ferguson sitting on either side of him as the court clerk read the verdicts about 2:45 p.m. Once the jury left, Astarita's attorneys took turns enveloping him in strong hugs. The team of prosecutors quietly filed out of the courtroom. The verdict marks the latest in a series of daunting losses for prosecutors trying people involved in the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, though this case targeted a federal agent who had been working on the government's side of the confrontation. Astarita had been on the Hostage Rescue Team for only eight months at the time of the Jan. 26, 2016, shooting at a highway roadblock in eastern Oregon. He spent hours on the witness stand over two days and testified that he's never fired his weapon in the line of duty during his 13 years with the FBI. He said he didn't independently recall where he was standing at the time of the disputed shots and said he heard no gunshots that day, though investigators found eight were fired at the roadblock. He said he was wearing a hearing-protection headset attached to his helmet. "I had no indication I had fired. I didn't hear it, feel it, see it that day,'' he told jurors this week. With Astarita's acquittal, the mystery remains as to who fired twice after Finicum swerved into a snowbank at the roadblock on U.S. 395 in Harney County, stepped from his truck with his hands in the air and shouted, "Go ahead and shoot me.'' One shot hit the roof of the truck's cab and shattered the rear driver's side window and the other missed entirely - both distinctly audible on the video captured by rear seat passenger Shawna Cox...MORE

Case of FBI agent accused of lying in Finicum shooting now in hands of jury

A prosecutor portrayed FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita as a rookie on the elite Hostage Rescue Team who panicked and fired twice as refuge occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum nearly ran over his teammate at a police roadblock. But Astarita lied to hide that he didn't hit his mark on Jan. 26, 2016, led by his ego and bravado as a "super agent'' - one who testified that he was trained to fire at a postage stamp 50 yards away, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Maloney argued Thursday. One shot struck the roof of the truck and the other went astray as Finicum stepped out of his truck, his hands in the air, investigators said. Astarita in 2010 "Putting rounds down range and missing is a big deal,'' Maloney said. "He lied to his superiors and he had to make that lie stick.'' Defense lawyer David Angeli countered that the government presented no witness over 11 days of Astarita's trial who either saw or heard Astarita fire any shots the day that state police and FBI agents arrested leaders of the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on U.S. 395 in eastern Oregon. Prosecutors provided no forensic evidence that proved Astarita discharged his Colt AR-15, Angeli said as both sides delivered closing arguments.Defense lawyers pointed to someone else who could have taken the shots: a state police SWAT officer, identified in court only as Officer 1 over concern for his safety. Officer 1's initial doubt that he may have fired the disputed shots when first told of the bullet strike to the roof of Finicum's truck should present enough reasonable doubt for jurors, Angeli said. Astarita, 41, is accused of two counts of making a false statement, alleging he lied to his immediate FBI supervisor "B.M.'' at the scene and days later to FBI supervisor Tim Swanson when he told them he hadn't shot his rifle. He also faces one count of obstruction of justice during his initial interview with two state police detectives...MORE

12 takeaways from Week 2 of FBI agent's trial in LaVoy Finicum shooting

Here are highlights from the second week of the federal trial in Portland of FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita, accused of lying about firing two shots at the truck of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum. They include testimony from the Oregon State Police officers who fatally shot Finicum and FBI agents who were next to Astarita that day. Finicum was the spokesman for the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. He died on Jan. 26, 2016, when the FBI and state police arrested two carloads of occupation leaders as they drove away from the refuge on U.S. 395 to go to a community meeting in the next county. Investigators said they can account for six of eight shots at Finicum. Three bullets hit his truck as he sped toward a roadblock on the highway. Another three shots killed Finicum when he walked away from his truck at the roadblock and reached inside his jacket where detectives said they later found a loaded pistol. All of the bullets were fired by two state police SWAT officers, investigators said. The investigators – members of a multi-agency task force led by Deschutes County sheriff’s detectives to review what happened -- believe someone fired two other shots in between the others. One bullet hit the roof of Finicum’s truck the moment he got out with his hands up after swerving his truck into a snowbank at the roadblock. Another missed. Prosecutors say Astarita fired the two shots. He has denied it. So far, only prosecutors have called witnesses. The defense case is expected to start this week. Testimony at Astarita’s trial revealed:..MORE

The Pardon: Rep. Waldren, Oregon Farm Bureau & H.R. 983

Greg Walden applauds pardon of Dwight and Steven Hammond
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Representative Greg Walden (R-Hood River) today released the following statement applauding the pardon of Dwight and Steven Hammond:
“Today is a win for justice, and an acknowledgement of our unique way of life in the high desert, rural West. I applaud President Trump for thoroughly reviewing the facts of this case, rightly determining the Hammonds were treated unfairly, and taking action to correct this injustice. “For far too long, Dwight and Steven Hammond have been serving a mandatory minimum sentence that was established for terrorists. This is something that would ‘shock the conscience,’ according to Federal Judge Michael Hogan, who presided over the case and used his discretion in sentencing which later was reversed.  As ranchers across eastern Oregon frequently tell me, the Hammonds didn’t deserve a five year sentence for using fire as a management tool, something the federal government does all the time.  “Moving forward, I’m encouraging the House Judiciary Committee to act on my legislation to prevent this situation from happening to other ranchers. H.R. 983 would ensure farmers and ranchers are not prosecuted as terrorists for using fire for range-management purposes. “For now, though, I am pleased that Dwight and Steven Hammond will return to their families and ranches in Harney County. I look forward to welcoming them back home to eastern Oregon.”

Oregon Farm Bureau statement on Hammonds pardon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2018, SALEM, OREGON: Oregon Farm Bureau (OFB) thanks the president, Congressman Walden, and all of those who worked to end the injustice done to Steven and Dwight Hammond by granting them clemency. While nobody can restore what they’ve lost to this prosecutorial overreach and bureaucratic vendetta, we are happy that this awful chapter will be coming to a close soon. OFB has publicly advocated for the Hammonds, including gathering over 25,000 online signatures, and also supported clemency through officials in Oregon and Washington, D.C. OFB President Barry Bushue said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with Steven and Dwight as they get back to the people and the land they love. We will continue to do whatever we can to ensure that this injustice is never repeated.” The federal judge who heard the Hammonds’ case, Michael Hogan, said in his ruling that a five-year prison sentence is “grossly disproportionate to the severity of [petitioners’] offenses.” He added that it does “not meet any idea I have of justice, proportionately” and “would shock the conscience to me.” Hogan also noted that the 1996 Anti-Terrorism & Effective Death Penalty Act was never meant to apply to ranchers simply trying to protect their land. We agree.

Embedded below is H.R. 983, the Resource Management Practices Protection Act:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kRo5-B6cfMuFA6p2Mnz7a684dtA30Bu8/view?usp=sharing

Prosecutors recommend sentence of time served for refuge occupier Blaine Cooper

Blaine Cooper, one of the first to plead guilty to federal conspiracy in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and who later testified for the government, is expected to be sentenced next week to time served. Cooper was described as a recruiter, calling men to come to the Oregon refuge with guns and to Bunkerville, Nevada, in April 2014 during a standoff with federal agents outside the ranch of cattleman Cliven Bundy. In addition to time served, prosecutors will recommend three years of supervised release for Cooper and that he pay $7,000 in restitution, according to court documents. He's already served more than 15 months in custody, according to prosecutors...MORE

Director calls PBS documentary on Malheur refuge occupation 'a story about American identity'

By Kristi Turnquist

The 41-day armed occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 was a media sensation. The self-described “patriots” who took over the refuge, the FBI, and Harney County residents caught in the middle all added up to drama that drew local coverage -- including The Oregoian/OregonLive’s comprehensive reports – and national attention, with stories emerging on a daily basis. Among those on hand to chronicle the showdown was David Byars, an independent filmmaker whose documentary about the Malheur occupation, “No Man’s Land,” airs on the PBS “Independent Lens” series Monday, May 7. Byars thinks the fact that he was on the ground in Harney County, but not issuing daily reports, helped him in gaining access to some of the occupiers who followed Ammon and Ryan Bundy -- sons of rancher Cliven Bundy -- to Oregon. “They were dissecting all the news reports that were coming out about them,” Byars says, during a phone interview. “They were taking issue with anything that wasn’t toeing the line with how they pictured themselves. I was just there, with my little camera, good, old, non-threatening David. I wasn’t putting out any content at all, because I had no outlet. I think that made them comfortable speaking to me.”...Interviews with journalists who covered the occupation, including former Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Les Zaitz, Montana-based journalist Hal Herring and writer Linda Tirado add some necessary context...The “American Experience” documentaries “were more informational to me, and less narrative,” Byars says. “I wanted to tell a story. There’s something about shattering that fourth wall with a narrator that really creates space between the audience and the story, and I wanted not to do that.” Instead, Byars says, “I really wanted this story to be told by the people who were there, who were on the ground living this thing.”...MORE 

Here is the PBS trailer for the documentary:

 https://youtu.be/qmBQl8rtsvo

Judge sentences Oregon refuge occupier Ryan Payne to over 3 years in prison

Ryan Payne, a pivotal "architect'' of the Oregon refuge occupation who used his military experience to lend credence to the takeover and help fortify the federal wildlife sanctuary in 2016, was sentenced Tuesday to three years and a month in prison. Payne was the most culpable of the defendants convicted in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and deserved a nearly three-and-a-half year prison term, Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow argued. Such a sentence would send a message not only to him but to "the Patriot community'' that armed conflict with the federal government results in serious punishment, he said. In a three-page, handwritten apology to the court, Payne, 34, wrote of his complete humiliation, acceptance of responsibility, recognition of the court's authority, and his estrangement from friends, close family members and former U.S. army colleagues as a result of his actions. He described himself as the law's "meanest vagrant: a forever criminal, in the land I sought to defend.'' Payne, wearing standard blue jail scrubs, stood before U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown and read from a prepared statement on lined yellow paper. He apologized, disavowed his past allegiance to militia and said his days of political activism are over. "My apology first to those whose lives were disrupted by my actions,'' Payne said, adding that he recognized the emotional distress he caused to federal employees who worked at the federal refuge and the residents of Harney County. "I would like to apologize generally to the American people,'' Payne continued. "My militia ties and former sentiments are severed. I accept the authority of this court. ... I am aware of the severity of my words and actions.''...more

Prosecutors to seek nearly 3 1/2-year sentence for refuge occupier Ryan Payne

By Maxine Bernstein

Federal prosecutors next week will seek a nearly 31/2-year sentence for Oregon refuge occupier Ryan Payne, the longest prison term yet for a defendant convicted in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. They described Payne as a central figure who helped orchestrate the armed occupation of the federal wildlife sanctuary, described by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow as "one of the most extensive criminal activities in Oregon history.'' The government submitted to the court a 91-page exhibit of recordings from weekly board meetings of the militia network Payne co-founded, Operation Mutual Defense, held in October, November and December 2015, the months preceding the refuge seizure. The board spoke of potential missions, including targeting radical Islam, intervening in the resettling of refugees in Montana and elsewhere, and attempting to free a federal prisoner by staging a "dynamic entry'' into a prison by shielding militiamen within protesters. While the mutual defense board formally voted on Nov. 29, 2015, not to send militia to Harney County unless the Hammonds asked for help, Payne headed to Burns and acted with Ammon Bundy and other supporters to try to encourage a "public uprising'' of local Harney County residents. Lisa Hay, Oregon's federal public defender, will push for a two-year sentence for Payne, now 34 years old. She argues anything more would be out of line with other defendants' punishments, which range from probation to a 21-month sentence given last week to Jason Patrick. Although Payne accepts his leadership role and recognizes his possession of firearms at the refuge was intimidating and perceived as threatening, his intent was not to cause chaos or harm but to protect the refuge occupiers, Hay wrote...more